On the evening of 3 September NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced an agreement between Greece and Turkey to “start technical talks at NATO to establish military deconfliction mechanisms to reduce the risk of incidents and accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean”.
“Greece and Turkey are valuable allies and NATO is an important platform for consultations on all issues that affect our common security”, he added, adding that he would remain in close contact with all Allies concerned to find a solution to the tensions in the spirit of NATO solidarity.
While Turkey stressed its support for this initiative on 3 September, Greece denied any such agreement.
Asked on 4 September about the misunderstanding, the NATO Secretary General said that Greek and Turkish military had already met for “technical discussions” to establish mechanisms for easing tensions, but that there was no agreement. He added that these were not negotiations either, and that the discussions were complementary to German efforts to mediate towards an easing of tensions.
Asked about the subject, the spokesman for the European External Action Service considered that “instead of unilateral measures, threats and declarations”, there was a need for dialogue to find a way of easing tensions. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)